Skilled performance tests and their use in diagnosing handedness and footedness at children of lower school age 8-10.

Martin Musalek

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01513

Abstract

Previous research has shown that hand and foot preferences do not develop in parallel in children and it has been discovered that in children foot preference stabilizes later. Therefore, the aim of this study is to verify whether the differences in stabilization will also be manifested through less consistent results of selected skilled foot performance tests in a comparison with selected skilled hand performance tests. A total of 210 8–10 year old children from elementary schools were recruited for this study. Hand and foot preferences were first tested using hand and foot preference observable measure tasks; consequently, all participants performed four skilled hand performance tests and three foot performance tests. Unlike in complex skilled hand performance tests, which showed a significant convergent validity 0.56–0.89 with hand preference tasks, in complex skilled foot performance tests a very low convergent validity 0.25–0.46 with foot preference tasks was detected. The only skilled foot performance indicator which showed an acceptable convergent validity with foot preference tasks was the “foot tapping” test 0.65–0.85, which represents rather a gross motor activity. Moreover, further results of the tests suggest that complex or fine motor performance tests used for diagnosing laterality of the lower limb that have a manipulative character probably do not represent suitable indicators for children in the given age category. The same trend was revealed in both females and males. This indicates that the level of laterality assessed as difference in skilfulness between the preferred and the non-preferred limb in children in the given age group probably develops in the same way in both genders.

Highlights

Numerous studies have in the past been dedicated to human laterality, which represent a multidimensional trait (Corballis, 2010)
The aim of the study was to verify in a selected child population whether later stabilization of lower limb preference in comparison to hand preference determined in children (Coren et al, 1981; Gabbard et al, 1991; Gabbard, 1992; Gentry and Gabbard, 1995) is manifested in lower consistency of performance test results for lower limbs used for the diagnosis of laterality
Convergence was not confirmed for two-foot performance tests and preference tasks, which suggests that lower limb lateralization in children is probably not identical in strength with upper limb lateralization. t-test results showed that selected indicators, which have been validated for the Czech population, assessing upper limb preference in 8- to 10-year olds determine the difference between the preferred and the non-preferred upper limb p < 0.05 very well, with the non-preferred upper limb always being slower and less precise

Summary

Introduction

Numerous studies have in the past been dedicated to human laterality, which represent a multidimensional trait (Corballis, 2010) It is well known, for instance, that in the adult population 90% of people prefer to use their right hand for common manual tasks, whereas about 10% of the population are so called lefthanders (Annett, 1994; Raymond et al, 1996; Bryden et al, 1997; McManus, 2002). Development of consistency and the level of preference of upper limbs in children has been studied by authors using so called reaching tasks (e.g., Bryden and Roy, 2006; Carlier et al, 2006), which focused on whether a child would manipulate with a tool using the preferred upper limb in the case that the tool was placed counterlaterally to the preferred hand. The authors add that development of strength and consistency of handedness in children represents an important dynamic process (Leconte and Fagard, 2004)

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Discussion

Conclusion